As environmental awareness grows among consumers, companies are trying to do more to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers. While lots of companies are validly making their products more eco-friendly, many others are finding themselves caught up in law suits for making exaggerated environmental claims. These exaggerated environmental claims have come to be known as “greenwashing”. The Federal Trade Commission (the advertising world’s policing body) prohibits deceptive or misleading environmental claims and is empowered to impose fines and require restitution against companies for misleading consumers into buying products that they believed were more eco-friendly than they really were.
To avoid being accused of greenwashing, companies should follow the same practices that they should be following for all advertising: make sure any claims made in an advertisement, packaging, or other marketing materials are completely truthful and can be substantiated. If the average person would be misled by the claim, then the company is vulnerable to a lawsuit. Advertisers should review the FTC’s Guidelines for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims.
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